Aidin
" There is no normal ...
There is no wrong answer"
Welcome to Rise for AIDIN! This endeavor is dedicated to our beloved son and brother, Aidin Behzadian.
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Aidin has been and continues to be the guiding light of our lives since he was born on Nov 14, 2002. His name means moonlight, enlightened, luminous, and intellectual in Farsi/Turkish, carrying poetic connotations like radiance, wisdom, and clarity.
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Aidin was different. He pushed boundaries past comfortable, challenged social norms, and questioned everything. He thought outside the box. His poem in 6th grade says:
"There is no normal... There is no wrong answer"
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Aidin did not believe in labels. To him, everyone was different. He valued and celebrated diversity as an integral part of human equality and thrived to meet everyone exactly where they were, nonjudgmentally. He was empathetic and advocated for his own needs at school and at home and had a strong commitment to justice, be it the Black Lives Matter movement or ensuring that students with learning and living differences could equally benefit from college level courses. Most in the family knew that he proudly rejected the Persian ritual of “tarof”, the polite social code of courtesy. He only said what he meant, so when he offered a compliment or shared his favorite gummies, one would feel loved and special. Aidin had a sharp memory that vividly recalled words, concepts, and experiences that had shaped him across his 20-year lifespan. He was an incredible mathematical problem solver and was recognized for his insights as the Calculus student of the year at Westlake High School upon his graduation in 2021. A man of perseverance, he had big dreams and was keenly focused on becoming a software engineer, with a strong interest in cybersecurity.
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Aidin also faced real struggles that impacted his daily life and well-being. He was rigid about being independent and didn't mind learning things the hard way. He thrived on his routines and felt uncomfortable when they were disrupted, be it a regular Chipotle meal or uninterrupted alone time. He felt deeply for others, even though his words or gestures were often misunderstood. He was unapologetically himself around our immediate family, but when it came to school, he had noticed that in order to do the things he aspired to do and to be taken seriously, he had to “mask” some of his most visible differences, leading to debilitating anxiety and isolation.
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To our despair, Aidin was marginalized by the society’s inability to embrace his different ways of perceiving and thinking. As he entered early adulthood, he suffered from chronic anxiety and undiagnosed seizures and departed this physical world tragically due to SUDEP (Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy) on 10/26/2023.
As his mom, I feel blessed to have him as my son for 20 years. He was never really mine in the first place. That he had a fate larger than I could imagine. Aidin's story has not ended. All I know is that there is more to this story...
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Join us in making a difference by inspiring and supporting our young adults, starting with our current home state of Arizona.
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Contact us: info@riseforaidin.com